Category Archives: media

Back when I marketed local TV news, I wrote that pithy little bit in today’s headline. It wasn’t the traditional sort of sloganeering you see from TV stations, but unlike a lot of branding statements, it actually said something. It was a tough sell, because people thought it was too long.

“It’s not that long,” I argued, “And it’s not long at all compared to what FedEx says: When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”

I always used to get a dirty look from my boss when I was right, and this was one of those times. Nevertheless, it didn’t take long for  Nothing More Important to be killed off, largely thanks to our consultant at Frank N. Magid Associates. They didn’t like it. Magid, by the way, has done more to make news look exactly alike everywhere in America than anyone else.

Not that I need validation, but Ad Week did an interesting piece on the long vs. short slogan debate a few years ago. From the story by Al Ries:

In the 1920s, according to author Ken Roman, a London advertising agency (Mather & Crowther) created an advertising slogan to get consumers to “eat more fruit.” The eight unforgettable words they created were: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Today, of course, that same slogan would probably have been shortened to “Got Apple?”

Oh, well. All this is neither here nor there, except I couldn’t stop thinking about my slogan as the news was chock full of missteps and flubs by the media, reporting of an arrest in the Boston Marathon bombing.

Being first is good, but being right? There’s nothing more important.

I don’t remember much about the journalism class I took at SUNY Plattsburgh, but there was one thing the professor taught that made a big impression.

He told us that there are not millions of stories out there. The truth is that there are maybe several dozen stories at best — change the names and some details and yes, it multiplies out to millions — but the fact remains that there are only a handful of stories.

What do you mean by that, we asked, of course there are millions of stories.

Then he started writing on the blackboard. Corrupt politician/board member/cop! Stricken down before their time! Screwed by the institution! Wasted taxpayer dollars! Tradesman plys a dying craft! Lost love found! Lost object found! Lost pet returns! He went on until the board was crammed — and then when we pulled out some newspapers from the big stack he kept in the corner and we started matching up the stories with the tropes he’d listed.

I was reminded of this when I saw a story in the Times Union about a piano tuner (Tradesman plys a dying craft!) and got curious. I typed “piano tuner” into Google News and came up with numerous recent piano tuner stories, including this one published just two days earlier.

I’m not saying this is bad, just that my teacher was right: there are no new stories. And it says something bigger about us, right? We respond to universal themes that are as old as the hills, things that preceed the written word, to the time when we gathered around the fire and told tales.

TV ain’t what it used to be.

Here in the Albany market we’ve seen a flurry of deals that are putting ownership and management of TV stations in fewer hands. That’s fine — except if you work at one of these places.

I got out of TV after 25 years because I could see the business was changing — and by changing, I don’t mean getting better. All over the country, people with job titles very much like mine were being axed. Some of them never worked in the field again. Creative services managers, directors of advertising and promotion, marketing coordinators — suddenly they had a target on their backs. Get rid of the position and redistribute the duties.

Over time TV stations have been shedding middle managers and hiring as many part-timers as they can. Why have a full-time news photographer when you can have several part-timers, people whose schedules you can shuffle around and who receive few benefits?

Consolidation will mean even more job shrinkage. Stations will share services and staff and there will be fewer career opportunities.

So what does this mean for news coverage? Nothing. This town was already over-served by TV news. A variety of news outlets didn’t mean better reporting, it just meant more of the same from different stations.

So that’s the new reality. My old boss used always drop this quote, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Many people attribute that to Yogi Berra, but they’re wrong — it was actually written by Walt Kelly for the comic strip Pogo.

Me? I prefer this quote from Michael Corleone: “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”

Poor Schenectady. They felt so screwed when it seemed the producers of “The Place Beyond the Pines” — a film that was partially shot in the city — would not show them some Hollywood love with a movie premier. It looks like it’s all worked out — but who the hell cares about that when Schenectady was prominently featured in a recent episode of Archer on FX. THAT is a big deal.

And not just Schenectady, either. Much of the story take place on the Northway and Thruway — and Coxsackie and Catskill are also name-dropped.

Sorry I can’t show the whole episode. Maybe you could buy it or something if you’d like to see it.

Never before have I wished so hard to have a remote control in my hand.

I recently sat in a waiting room for hours as my son went under the knife for a knee ailment. On the TV was YNN, our local Time Warner 24 hour news channel.

I am not a huge YNN fan.  Their stories are superficial, providing just the sparest details, and usually presented by rookie reporters who look like they’re desperate to jump to one of the broadcast stations. Say what you will about local news, but at its best, reporters will find a hook that makes their story unique or an angle nobody elese has. YNN? Never.

But that’s OK. YNN is basically a headline and weather service designed for short term viewing. This is knows as a “news wheel,” where everything is pre-recorded and programmed to repeat. That’s fine if you’re watching for ten minutes, but try having it on for FOUR HOURS.

I tried to ignore it and read my book — the terrific Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain – but as YNN droned on and on in the corner, endlessly repeating the same stories, I wanted to thrust pencils into my ears. Even permanent deafness would be better than listening to that crap.

I realize that a waiting room is no place for TV that ignites the fury of viewers like Fox News or MSNBC, but why not innocuous fare like the Food Network? Most of the people sharing the waiting room were there, like me, for hours.

Or is there another reason we’re being subjected to YNN?

YNN now has a deal with Stewart’s Shops to show the news channel in their stores, so is it possible businesses like medical offices and oil change joints are getting a deal on cable for playing YNN. I’d bet money on it.

Meanwhile, where are the earplugs?

Volkswagen’s “Get Happy” Super Bowl ad, in which everybody feels better when they adopt a Jamaican accent, has been slammed by some US observers as racist.

Sure, it plays on our stereotype of Jamaicans, but it seems the Jamaicans themselves love it.

So, what if there were a commercial that had everyone speaking in an Irish brogue, would that be criticized? Of course not, because Irish people are white. How about the French, Scandinavians, Italians, or any other of the dozens of national groups we stereotype? Same answer.

Anyhow, another part of the campaign is brilliant, a crazy collision of viral video stars and Jimmy Cliff:

That’s wonderful — and best of all, its hillside sing-a-long is an homage to one of the most famous commercials of all time:

Here’s the full page ad.

Local real estate agents went nuts recently over a  story in the Times Union. It was a lightweight piece with readers responding to this question: What did your realtor tell you to do but you ignored?  Well, this went over like a fart at an open house.

The newspaper had to backpedal and apologize to the angry agents, but the kowtowing didn’t end there: the TU is now running  a  week of full page ads extolling the virtues of dealing with a real estate agent.

Why so sensitive? First of all, realtors are proud people; just look at how they use their photos in their ads, on their signs, their business cards… but more importantly they spend a sh*tload of money in the newspaper, so they have a great deal of influence.

You might assume this is a reaction to tough times in the news biz, and that when things were solid this could NEVER have happened. But the truth is that this sensitivity to big advertisers and their whims is nothing new.

When I worked in local TV, part of my job was to help come up with interesting, promotable stories to do in sweeps. I was not a journalist, but a marketer, and it was my role to understand what pushed viewer’s buttons.

Several times I sat in meetings and pitched an idea that went something like this:

“What’s the biggest consumer purchase most people will ever make, besides a house? Buying a car. We should do a money piece that shows people how to go into the showroom and get the best deal possible. We can explain the tricks they use to get you to pay more — we can probably even find a former car dealer who’ll talk about it. Imagine how great it would be if we could save people thousands of dollars? That’s some news you can use”

This suggestion never went anywhere. Why? Because car dealers are huge (no pun intended) advertisers, and the last thing you want in your newscast is a story on how to beat them at their game. That game is paying for your newscast.

At the end of the day, this is a tale of media literacy. If you think there is strict separation between the newsroom and the sales department you are completely wrong — especially in a town this size.

Style note: I refuse to capitalize “realtor.”